


Playing Host

by theron09



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010), Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Crossover, M/M, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-14
Updated: 2013-12-14
Packaged: 2018-01-04 14:53:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1082324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theron09/pseuds/theron09
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Danny’s cousins Chin and Kono arrive in Beacon Hills on a case, he’s eager to spend time with them and introduce them to his friends - especially Stiles. But then a body is found in Danny’s own back yard – literally – and he realises that 5-0’s case hits even closer to home than he first thought. </p><p>Working with Stiles, Danny must try and protect himself and the residents of Beacon Hills, while hiding the truth about his friends from his visitors. But, sometimes, the truth doesn’t want to stay hidden.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Playing Host

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for teenwolf_bb over at livejournal.
> 
> Thanks to blueeyeslahey for stepping in at the last moment and still managing to produce some really lovely art to go with this fic! Check it out at this post: http://blueeyeslahey.tumblr.com/tagged/bang%3A-playing-host ! 
> 
> Thanks to mirrorkill for the beta job and the reassurance – you’re awesome!

There are some things in life, Danny thinks, that a person just has to get used to. Working in the hot, blistering heat of summer, the fact that some people are assholes and can’t be redeemed and, apparently in his case, Stiles following him home from school without fail.

It used to bug Danny so much, Stilinski thinking they were friends when really they were more like casual acquaintances who had nothing against one another but didn’t _need_ to talk. And then Jackson had left for London and eventually Stiles had – after the whole Ethan incident which Danny tries not to think about now – decided that Danny needed a new friend (although Danny’s pretty sure it started off as Stiles trying to prove a point to Scott about how he was cool with them having other friends like Danny and Isaac).

The following him home thing had started then and, at first, Danny had resisted. Now, though, eight months later, it’s a _miss_ when Stiles doesn’t end up at his house after school and that only has a little something to do with the fact that _apparently_ , Stiles _is_ attractive to Danny. Who knew? Well, _Stiles_ doesn’t know because Danny hasn’t been brave enough to go there yet.

So yeah, Danny’s quite disconcerted when he heads out of school on Friday and there’s no sign of Stiles anywhere, but he’s not going to make a big deal out of it because it’s not like they’re dating or anything. They’re friends. Not even best friends – Danny’s is in another country, and Stiles sees his every single day without fail, even when there are crazy werewolf things happening.

Besides, Danny’s got other things to think about, like the fact he’s due a VolP call from his cousin in Hawaii and he really needs to get home so he can join his family in time for it. Chin leads a ridiculously busy life and it’s not often he gets a window to talk.

When he gets home, his parents are already gathered around the computer screen but he barely gets through the door before his dad is reaching forwards to shut it down.

“I missed him?” he asks, dropping his rucksack on the floor. “I thought he’d be able to stick around for longer.”

“You didn’t miss him,” his mom says, “he just sent us an email – a case came up.”

Danny pulls a face; Chin loves his job with the 5-0 taskforce but Danny wishes his hours were a bit more predicable – he sees little enough of his cousins as it is without Chin and Kono constantly having to cancel contact with them. He hopes the guy they work for appreciates the sacrifices they make.

“That’s it,” he says, “we have to go back to the island soon. It’s the only way we’re going to get to spend any time with them.”

“Maybe not,” his mom smiles in the way she does when she has a secret.

“What?” he laughs. “Come on, tell me.”

“This case that came up – it’s led them here.”

“To California?”

“To _Beacon Hills_ ,” his dad corrects. “They’re tracking someone and the trail’s led them here, apparently. So it looks like we will be seeing Chin Ho soon, and Kono, too.”

It’s been two years since Danny has seen any of his extended family in person – he’s not going to lie: he’s excited at the prospect. He’s close to all of his cousins – and there’s a lot of them – but he’s always looked up to Chin the most, always had the most fun with Kono when they’ve visited Hawaii.

“You know what that means, though,” his dad says.

“What?”

“Time to clean your room,” his mom answers.

Danny groans.

~~

“Dude, I brought a movie.” Stiles walks into Danny’s room, because Danny’s parents know to just send him upstairs now when he comes to visit. “Woaaah, what are you doing? Are you _cleaning?_ On a Friday night.”

“Hello to you, too. Where were you at the end of school?”

“Detention. Again. Back to you and the incredible weirdness of cleaning on a Friday.”

He grins. “We have family coming to visit. Stick the movie on if you want, though – I can watch and tidy all at the same time.”

“Cool,” Stiles throws himself down on top of the bed, “it’s not like you have much cleaning to do, anyway, look at this place.”

“I know – I just need it looking tidy enough where my cousin can crash in here without Mom stressing out.”

“Fair enough. So it’s your cousin visiting?”

“Two of them – they’re coming for work reasons but they’re going to hang around for a few days after if they can.”

“Work reasons?”

“They’re cops – oh, hey, they’ll probably be liaising with your dad. They’re on the trail of someone, apparently, I’m not sure what the suspect has done; my parents wouldn’t tell me.”

“Well, if your cousins won’t tell you, either, my dad will tell me. I’m pretty good at getting information.”

“So am I.” Danny gestures towards his laptop, waggling his eyebrows. “And don’t say you’re good at getting information _legally_ because I know that’s not always how you get it. I’ve seen you in action, remember?”

“Yep, that’s me – a man of action.”

Danny snorts.

“Thanks for that, it’s great for my self-esteem,” Stiles says, throwing a pillow at Danny.

Setting the pillow back in its place, Danny flicks the side of Stiles’ head. “You’re an idiot.”

“I’m a loveable idiot. An idiot people love. It’s part of my charm.”

“Who are these people and what’s wrong with them?”

Stiles pouts. “You’re upsetting me now.”

“No I’m not. This is what we do – we banter. I insult you, you pout at me.”

“I don’t pout.”

“Yeah, you do.” Smirking, Danny picks up the last of his school books off the floor and places it in the box on his desk. “Are you putting the movie on or not?”

“I should say not and leave right now until you admit I’m awesome.”

“You’re awesome.”

“Hah!” Stiles fist bumps the air.

“If awesome means irritating and pouty.”

“You suck.”

“Do you really want to get me started on _those_ particular jokes? Because-” Danny breaks off as his bedroom door opens and his mom appears, and Danny’s _really_ glad his mom doesn’t have werewolf hearing.

“Sorry to interrupt – I just want to know if you’re staying over tonight, Stiles?”

Stiles glances at Danny. “If that’s okay? My dad’s working the night shift so I thought I might hang, but Danny said you’ve got visitors coming.”

“Not until tomorrow morning – of course you can stay, honey, I’ll make sure there’s enough food for tonight.”

Danny smiles as his mom leaves; she’s been happy ever since Stiles started hanging around – her son befriending the sheriff’s son had apparently been a turn of events she approved of. Danny wonders whether she’d feel the same if she knew exactly what Stiles had, albeit by mistake, dragged him into.

“You’re sure I can crash?” Stiles asks, leaning forwards to put the disc into the DVD player.

“Sure, dude. I’ve got to set the camp bed up anyway. I’m on it while Chin’s using my bed.”

“That sucks.”

He shrugs. “It’s what you do for family.”

“Like the pack.”

“Like the pack,” Danny says, sitting down next to Stiles on the bed. It’s comfortable, their friendship, where once it had been awkward. Danny wonders what Jackson would say if he could see him now, and then winces at what he imagines.   Maybe Jackson isn’t the best point of reference, anyway.

~~

Danny’s woken up by a loud groan the next morning, and he peers over the top of his bed to see Stiles stretching out on  the camp bed, pulling a face that Danny thinks means pain. He almost aches himself in anticipation of the couple of nights he himself is going to spend on there, and wonders whether Chin would think it too weird to just sleep one under the covers, one on top now that Danny’s not ten anymore. He misses the days when he was younger and he and Jackson would just share a bed and think nothing of it. Now, his parents insist that if he’s going to have any friends over, the camp bed has to come out.

“Staying over always seems like a good idea until I actually wake up the next morning,” Stiles rolls off the camp bed and lands on the floor with a thud.

“You might actually be more comfortable on the couch. You know, the one that turns into a bed,” he quips. There’s a reason Stiles doesn’t take the couch; when he stays over, they literally just talk until they fall asleep and that wouldn’t work if they were in different rooms.

“ _Please._ I can handle a bit of pain.” Stiles sniffs the air, looking not unlike Scott when he catches a scent. “Especially when your mom makes Malasadas for breakfast.”

Danny’s not sure whether his mom has made the extra effort because Stiles is over (she does tend to spoil Stiles) or because his cousins are due that morning, but either way he’s pleased. His mom’s Malasadas are the best – even Kono, who lives in Hawaii, says so.

They make their way downstairs and have just sat down at the table when the doorbell rings and Danny stands straight back up again, grinning. “That’ll be them, right?” He doesn’t wait for an answer before going to answer the door, although he does hang on a second before opening it because he doesn’t want to seem too eager – he’s not fourteen anymore.

“Cousin,” Kono says, pulling him in close, “it’s been too long.”

He kisses her in greeting and replies, “I know, right? Way _too_ long.”

Chin nods, gripping Danny’s shoulder tightly. “Tell me about it, brah; when’d you get so tall, huh?”

“Oh, he sprouted overnight when he was fifteen. It was actually kind of freaky.”

Danny turns to see Stiles standing a little way behind him, watching them fondly. “Says you, beanpole. Stiles, this is Chin Ho and Kono. This is Stiles – resident smartass and sheriff’s son.”

“The sheriff’s son?” Chin grins. “Do you think you can show us the way to the station when we’re finished saying hello here?”

“Sure,” says Stiles, “as long as I can finish my Malasadas first.”

Kono takes another step into the house. “Malasadas? Sure, if you can get to them before I finish them all.”

“She’s being serious, you know,” Chin says, and laughs when Stiles goes barrelling after Kono into the house. Then he turns back to Danny. “Seriously, how are you? I’m sorry it’s been so long since we’ve talked.”

“It’s okay – you’ve been busy. So have I, to be honest, with school and lacrosse and… other things.”

“Other things? You’ll have to tell me more about that later. We can’t stop for long this morning – the rest of our team have already gone to meet with the sheriff, we only really stopped by now to say hello and drop our things off.”

“Sure,” Danny says, “are your bags in the car?”

“Yeah, but-”

“I’ll get them.” He takes the keys out of Chin’s hand before his cousin can stop him. “Seriously, go eat and say hi.”

“You’re a good kid, Danny.” Chin grasps his shoulder again before heading into the house.

Danny nods, and goes to bring in the bags, hoping there’ll be some breakfast left for himself when he gets inside. With Stiles there, possibly not.

~~

Danny spends most of Saturday trying to concentrate on his school work rather than thinking about what his cousins might be up to. It’s hard, though. He’s heard a lot of stories about 5-0 and the cases they’ve solved. Alarming as the danger Kono and Chin end up in a lot of the time is, their lives are pretty interesting. Although Danny’s pretty sure he has some interesting stories himself now, too.

It’s late afternoon by the time he gets finished with the economics homework Coach had set them and even though he should really start on his French, he doesn’t. Instead, he grabs his jacket and leaves the house. He walks aimlessly, without really thinking about the direction he’s going in until he ends up outside Beacon County Sheriff Station and realises maybe he did have an aim after all.

He stands outside for several minutes, debating, before telling himself he can’t go in. Police business is police business, no matter if his cousins are involved or not. This isn’t their turf, and their younger cousin being nosy isn’t going to help them make a good impression.

“You got curious too?” Stiles asks in his ear, clapping him on the shoulder.

“I – no.”

“Sure. I totally believe you. Come on, we’ll go in and check it out, tell them I dragged you along with me when I wanted to ask my dad something.”

“Do you think they’ll buy that?”

“Of course. Trust me, I’m a pro at this sort of thing by now.”

“That isn’t something to be proud of.”

“Danny, we live in a town with a higher than normal werewolf population and we happen to be friends with most of them – I’m proud of _anything_ that doesn’t involve running away from threats.”

“That isn’t much, then,” he smirks, nudging Stiles in the side. “Come on, then, evil genius. Show me what you can do.”

Danny follows Stiles inside and watches as he charms his way past the officer on reception. It’s not hard – Stiles often visits his dad at work, sometimes to eat lunch together, other times to pester his dad for information that the pack needs. The people here know Stiles, and Stiles knows them. They give Danny a slightly odd look, and the guy that arrested Danny for hacking that one time glares, but Stiles just rattles off some words and they’re allowed to pass. They find the sheriff and Danny’s cousins in one of the briefing rooms with a few other people, and Kono looks at Danny questioningly right up until the moment Stiles speaks, then everyone’s attention is on him.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Stiles says, “but we need your help. For a school project.”

Sheriff Stilinski arches one eyebrow. “A school project?”

“Yep. We’re looking at ethics in emergency services – how sensitive cases are dealt with, that sort of thing.”

Danny’s ninety per cent sure the sheriff doesn’t believe his son in the slightest, so isn’t surprised when they’re told to wait out in the corridor until there’s time for them.

 Stiles pulls a face as the door closes behind them, and then shrugs. “Plan B will work.”

“What’s plan B?”

Stiles smirks. “You ask your cousins what’s going on.”

“What? No.”

“Why not? They’re your cousins – what’s the worst they can do?”

“They’ll think I’m poking my nose in where it doesn’t belong.”

“So? I do that all the time.”

“But _I_ don’t. It’s out of character.”

“Dude, you got arrested for hacking – it’s not _that_ out of character. They know about that, right?”

Danny can feel himself flushing just thinking about the lecture he’d gotten from Chin for that one. “Yeah, they know.”

“So just ask them. I mean, they’ve come all the way from Hawaii after this guy, right? It’d be unusual if you _weren’t_ curious about why.”

“I guess.”

“It’s settled, then. You’ll ask them.”

Danny sighs. Somehow, he always manages to let Stiles drag him into the crazy schemes he dreams up. He dreads to think what Stiles could encourage him to do if he knew how Danny really felt about him.

Danny’s half-way home when someone honks their car horn at him, and he turns to see Chin pulling up at the side of the road. He hops into the car. “Are you done for the day?”

Chin shakes his head. “No, but I’m heading past your place to get where I’m going – figured I might as well offer you a lift.”

“Right.”

“Look, kid, I hope you’re not disappointed that the sheriff doesn’t want you to know what’s going on.”

Danny shrugs. “I’m not – that’s more Stiles than me.”

“Yeah, well. You know, brah, part of those police ethics he mentioned is not sharing sensitive details about active cases – you get me?”

“I know – that makes sense. I guess we’re just curious about who could be so bad a whole taskforce would track them personally instead of just passing on information.”

“This guy _is_ bad. But most taskforces probably wouldn’t.” Chin laughs. “Steve’s just a stubborn boss who doesn’t exactly like losing, especially not when serial killers are involved.”

“You’re after a serial killer?”

“Yes, and that’s all you’re going to find out. I guess it’s pretty full-on for Beacon Hills, right?”

Danny snorts. “You’d be surprised, actually. We’ve had some pretty intense things happen over the last few years – a couple of serial killers of our own.” He decides not to mention that one of them was sort of his best friend (albeit under the control of someone else) because Chin and Jackson have had an uneasy relationship ever since the time Chin had walked in on Jackson handing Danny a beer when they were twelve years old.

“Really? That might explain why the sheriff seemed so tense. Here we are.” Chin pulls up outside the house, and Danny’s about to get out of the car when Chin grabs his arm. “Be careful over the next few days, okay? This guy’s dangerous, and he’s killed people your age before.”

“I’ll be careful.”

“You promise?”

“I promise,” he says, hoping it’s an oath he can keep.

The moment he walks inside the house, Danny gets hit with a dozen different aromas that spell out his mom’s cooking. It makes _his_ mouth water, and he wonders just what it’d do to Scott or Isaac or Boyd. In the kitchen, his mom has the radio on as she cooks, and Danny watches her from the doorway for a moment before he makes his presence known.

“Going all out?” he asks.

“It’s not often our family gets a chance to visit, Danny. Of course I am. Kono called an hour ago – they’ve got a couple more stops to make and then they’re all coming here.”

“The rest of 5-0, too?”

His mom nods. “Of course. I invited them. It seemed awful letting them eat hotel food while I cooked for your cousins. Have you finished your homework?”

“I’ve still got a bit to do.”

“Go and finish it off, then, so you can spend time with your cousins.”

Danny nods, and heads up to his room. He’s _very_ curious about meeting the rest of 5-0.

~~

By the time Danny gets done with his French homework he can already hear more voices in the house and he takes a quick moment to change his shirt before heading downstairs to join everyone.

His mom’s standing at the bottom of the stairs, arms loaded up with plates. “I was just about to shout for you,” she says, “food’s ready.”

Danny takes a couple of the plates from her and heads into the room. “Awesome. I’m forever the king of good timing when it comes to food.”

“Believe me, I know that.”

Chin laughs. “We _all_ know that.”

“I didn’t,” says a tall man with dark hair, looking quite amused. “You must be Danny?”

“That would be me,” he sets the plates down on the table and holds out his hand to shake. “You’re Steve?”

“Yeah, and that’s Danno.”

“Danny,” the other stranger in the room says indignantly.

Steve shakes his head, “for the sake of everyone’s sanity, you’re Danno while there’s another Danny in the house. It makes sense and you know it does.”

“You don’t by chance go by another name, do you? Dan? Daniel?” asks Danno, peering at Danny curiously.

“Nope, sorry. It’s always Danny,” he says, as Kono laughs in the background.

Bringing another plate into the room, his mom sits down at the table. “His dad tried nicknaming him Dastardly once, but it didn’t really stick. Please, sit, eat.”

And eat they do. Danny knows he has a bit of a reputation for enjoying his food, always going back for second helpings, but even he is impressed by the way their guests tuck into the meal in front of them. Second helpings become third helpings and they chat easily as his cousins ask him about school, as Danno recounts story after story of Steve’s recklessness. It doesn’t escape Danny’s attention that they avoid all mentions of serial killers or why they’re in Beacon Hills. Eventually, Chin wipes his mouth with a napkin and sets it on his plate.

That’s when Danny’s mom stands up again. “Dessert, anyone?”

The whole table groans in unison, but nobody turns the offer down.

“I swear,” Danno says, gesturing wildly with his arms, “I have _never_ tasted food this good anywhere apart from my own parents’ house. And the best thing is, there isn’t any pineapple or spam in sight. You, Mrs. Mahealani, are wonderful – you could definitely teach Kamekona a thing or two.”

“Kamekona?” Danny sits up straighter in his seat, remembering the name, as his mom dishes up dessert, “the shave ice guy?”

“That’s the one,” Chin smiles, “we actually see quite a lot of him these days. Man, I’d forgotten we used to take you there when you visited.”

“Are you kidding? Shave ice trips were second only to the days at the beach.”

“Yeah, well ten year olds aren’t that hard to please, brah,” says Kono.

 “I’m about eighty per cent sure I’m still easy to please,” he says, taking a spoonful of the apple pie his mom has made. His mom’s apple pie is _the best._ Jackson used to find excuses to come around every time Danny mentioned his mom was making some. Man, Danny misses that.

“You okay?” asks Kono, looking at him over her bowl. “You look sad all of a sudden.”

“Yeah, sorry – I’m fine. I was just thinking about Jackson.”

Kono nods. “You’re still hanging around with him?”

“He’s still making you feel sad?” Chin adds, disapprovingly.

“ _Please­ –_ Jackson can be a bit of an idiot but he’s nowhere near as bad as you think he  is. And I’m not really hanging around with him anymore, seeing as he’s in London now.”

“He is?” Chin says. “Sorry, cousin, I know you two are close. It must blow having him living in a different country.”

He appreciates Chin’s attempt to hide his delight and appear sympathetic, so he just nods instead of saying what he really wants to say.

_At least Jackson’s not dead._

His parents don’t really know about Ethan, and as much as he could have used their support at the time, explaining what had happened would have been too hard; he doesn’t want them dragged into what he’s been involved in. He wants them kept safe, even if he can’t be.

“So,” Kono gives him a look that he knows means he’s about to be embarrassed, “is there a special someone in your life right now?”

He shakes his head.

“Oh, tell them about Stiles,” his mom says happily. She really does like Stiles.

“Stiles? The kid we met this morning?”

“He’s not a kid, yes that’s him, no I don’t want to talk about it.”

Kono grins. “Which means we’re definitely going to. You like him?”

“Course he does,” says Chin, “you can tell that just by looking at him right now. The real question is: does Stiles like _you_?”

“I think he does,” his mom says, at the same time as Danny says “not like that.”

“Well there’s a story you two didn’t get straight,” Danno quips, earning himself a semi-glare from Steve.

“Have you asked him if he does?” Chin says, as he reaches for a second slice of pie.

“No.”

“Well,” Kono says, “you’re never going to know unless you try.”

Danny really hadn’t planned on getting relationship advice from his cousins over the dinner table, so he shuts Kono up with one well-aimed question - “Have you asked out Charlie Fong yet?” – and is proud of himself when it hits the mark. He know how to embarrass his cousins just as much as they know how to embarrass him.

~~

“A serial killer?” Stiles slams his locker shut and whirls around to look at Danny. “Another one?”

“I know.”

“Man, that sucks. Because it really didn’t end so well last time.” Stiles takes a step closer to Danny.

“I know.”

“I mean, it ended _ugly._ What with the crazy mystical showdown and Lydia screaming and Ethan playing the hero and dy- sorry.” Stiles bites his lip and pats Danny on his shoulder. “That was insensitive.”

“It’s fine,” Danny says, pulling on a fresh t-shirt, “you’re right. It did end ugly. I just hope Chin and Kono stay safe.”

Stiles nods, lowering his voice as Scott approaches them. It doesn’t really do much, but it gives them the illusion of privacy. “They will, dude. You’ve told me about them, remember? They’re badass.”

“So was Ethan. It didn’t stop him being killed by his own twin brother.”

This time, Stiles doesn’t say anything, just nods and pulls a sympathetic face.

“Is there something I should be worrying about?” asks Scott, looking at them anxiously.

Danny shakes his head. “No, it’s nothing to do with your particular brand of weird. It’s just a family thing.”

“Oh. Right,” says Scott, “that actually makes a change. Things on our front have been refreshingly quiet lately, I like it.”

Stiles sighs. “You’ve done it now.”

“Done what?”

“Said _that._ You’ve gone and said nothing’s been happening so I can guarantee by this time next week every weird supernatural creature imaginable will have crawled out from under their rock and attacked.”

“That’s kind of melodramatic,” says Danny.

Scott nods. “Exactly.”

Danny shrugs. “But probably right. Something’s bound to happen now you’ve said it hasn’t been. Just do me a favour and try and leave me out of it as much as possible.”

“We’ll try. Hey – me, Stiles and Isaac are going to the movies if you want to come with?”

“Nope,” says Stiles, before he can even get a chance to answer, “Danny wants to get home and spend time with his _super cool_ older cousins, don’t you, Danny?”

“Okay. Number one: you’re speaking on my behalf now? Number two: actually, they might not even be there, they might be working. I just promised my dad I’d help him in the garden.”

“Boring,” Stiles says, dragging out the word, “but noble, I guess. See you tomorrow, then.”

Danny nods and leaves the locker room. Really, he probably could have gotten out of helping his dad, but he does try to spend time away from Stiles sometimes, and _if_ his cousins do happen to finish earlier than they’d expected, at least he’ll be at home and not miss them. They are kind of _super cool_ , after all.

His house is pretty near the school so it doesn’t take him long to get home. Today, though, it actually takes him a while to be allowed _inside_ his house because somewhere in the time between when he left for school and now, it’s been surrounded by yellow crime tape, and police cars, and police officers.

_Crap._

His first thought is for the safety of his parents, until he remembers that his cousins are in town. Before he can panic too much, though, Chin exits the house and walks towards him, palms held out in a calming gesture.

“It’s okay. It’s none of us,” his cousin says, gripping Danny gently by the arm and leading him under the police tape so that they can get some privacy away from the people that have gathered to watch.

“It isn’t?”

“No. Now, I don’t want you to worry too much, okay?”

“Chin, what’s happened?” He feels like he’s about to throw up; the last time he saw this many police, they were taking away Ethan’s body. The time before that, it was Jackson’s after the game and they’d all thought he was dead.

“Your dad went outside to get started on the garden and he found – Danny, he found a body.”

“A _body?_ Why would there be a body in our garden? Is it someone we know?”

“I don’t know. The m.o. looks the same as the guy we’re after – we think he’s left the body there to taunt us, or to try and warn us away. One of the two. He’s never done this before, to us or to anyone who has investigated him in other places, otherwise we’d never have put you guys in this position.”

“I know you wouldn’t,” he says, glancing around at the people working around him. “So what’s happening? Are we allowed to sleep in the house tonight?”

“Yeah – the crime scene is outside so you’re good for that. And at least one of us – me, Kono, Steve or Danny – are going to be in the house with you at all times until we figure out what’s going on. We’ll get you an escort to school, too.”

“Isn’t that a little over the top?”

Chin shakes his head. “No way. We’re not taking any chances when it comes to this guy.”

He nods, a little distracted when he sees the body being carried out on a stretcher.

“It’s a little bit of a shock, right?” Chin asks.

Danny shrugs. It’s not the first death he’s been aware of, not even the first body he’s been near to. He’s seen people he loves killed right in front of him, has seen others with injuries that would kill a normal person, guts visible and blood everywhere. Nothing much surprises him anymore. And then, as he watches, the sheet they’ve covered the corpse with slips and there’s no way he can avoid seeing what’s underneath, oh, that’s definitely a shock. The biggest shock he’s had in a while.  

And that’s when Danny knows. Knows without a doubt. The body in their garden isn’t a message for 5-0.

It’s a message for him.

~~

Derek paces up and down the length of the loft once, twice, and then turns to look at Danny again. “You’re sure it was Aiden? Not just someone who looked like him.”

“It was Aiden. Trust me. I know what he looks like pretty well, and he was _cut in half._ That’s one of the most effective ways to actually kill one of you guys, right?”

Derek winces, glancing at Peter. “Yes. But that doesn’t mean-”

“It was Aiden. It was Aiden and he was dead and in _my_ garden.”

“And your cousins think it’s the same killer that they’re after?” asks Stiles, handing Danny a cup of tea. “Here, it’ll calm your nerves.”

“I’m not-”

“Drink it,” Lydia says, so he does.

“Yeah,” he says, after he’s taken a sip, “Chin said it’s the same guy, exactly the same m.o., which means-”

“Which means we have to do some research into the other victims,” Derek says, “Stiles, can you ask-”

“My dad isn’t lead on this case – 5-0 is. I mean, from what I can gather he’s mainly helping by providing local resources and focusing on the case here now, not looking at past cases. Besides, he’s already suspicious after we, you know, outright asked him about what was going on.”

“What are we going to do, then?” asks Isaac, from where he’s leaning casually against the wall. “This isn’t an alpha pack thing – there’s no way it can be – but it’s obviously _something_ to do with us.”

Allison nods. “Do you think it could be a hunter who hasn’t managed to stay off the police’s radar?”

“That’s actually a possibility,” says Peter.

Derek looks serious when he next speaks. “You all need to be careful – really careful – until we know what’s going on.”  

“Yeah,” Isaac says slowly, “but what are we going to do? We really need to know more about what _is_ going on.”

Danny sighs, and clears his throat. “I think I can get the information.”

“You’re going to ask your cousins again?” asks Stiles.

“Nope – I already know they won’t tell us much more. I’m going to use my, er, extra skills.” It’s risky, he knows, when his cousins are well aware of what he can do. If anything gets flagged up online as being suspicious, they might look to him for answers. But the body was left in _his_ garden, and it’s Aiden, which means it’s personal. It’s a risk he has to take.

“Okay, then,” Derek says, “Danny, you focus on finding out whatever you can – Stiles, help him sift through the information. Two heads will be quicker and more effective than one. Isaac, Peter and I will see if we can sense any new packs in the area, just in case. Boyd, Scott, Allison and Lydia – I want you to keep your heads down for now. If something goes wrong, I want to have a couple of us not associated with the whole thing if possible.”

“Can I head home now, then? Get started?” Danny’s already standing up, even as he waits for confirmation that he can go. Even now that he’s used to the fact that Derek isn’t Miguel, and that Derek can be pretty creepy when he wants to, being in the loft still makes him feel uncomfortable. It’s not because it’s Derek’s, but because it’s also the _pack’s_ and Danny’s still not sure where he stands with that. He’s not really pack – he’s not a werewolf, he’s not Stiles or Lydia who are connected by a werewolf. Hell, he dated someone from a different pack. But he’s invited to more meetings than not nowadays, and Stiles tells him most of what is said even when he isn’t there.

“Sure,” says Derek, “the sooner the better. Let us know what you find.”

He nods, and waits for Stiles to gather up his stuff. “It might take a while for me to get what we need.”

“Just do your best at your end,” says Scott, “and we’ll do our best at ours.”

~~

“Have you found anything yet?” Stiles is lounging on Danny’s bed, flipping idly through a book. “Like, not even anything you can guarantee will be useful but just something I can do? Because I feel really bad just sitting here while you break the law.”

“Why don’t you shout that a little louder? It’s possible Kono didn’t hear.” Glancing over his shoulder at Stiles, Danny rolls his eyes when his friend sticks his tongue out. “I’m just printing out some of the police reports for the other victims – you can take a look through those if you like? See if there’s anything that sticks out.”

“I can do that.” Stiles stands up and walks over to pick up the print-outs. “What are you doing now?”

“I’m looking for more information about the people involved.”

“Right. Well, have fun with that.”

“I will. Have fun with the gruesome details in the reports.”

“I won’t. But I’ll suffer through it for the good of us all.”

Danny doesn’t dignify that with an answer, and instead carries on trawling for information. If he’s honest, he’s actually missed being able to do this – getting caught is too much of a risk if he doesn’t have an actual important reason for doing it.

He gets so caught up in his task that he almost forgets Stiles is there until his friend speaks again.

“Dude, I think I might have something.”

Spinning around in his chair, he says, “What’ve you found?”

“So most of these bodies were found in public places – parks, beaches, car parks. Except from a few that were found in gardens, like the one in yours.”

“Okay – why those few?”

“That’s the _really_ interesting part. There’s been a body found in a garden in every place this guy has struck. Just one, and it’s always the first body they find.”

Danny leans forward in his seat. “Every single time?”

“Every single time. Which means, there’s a reason for the location.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

Stiles ducks his head. “It also means there’s definitely going to be more deaths unless we – or the cops – can work this out quickly.”

“We kind of knew that already, though. Serial killer. Are we going to operate on the assumption that the method of killing isn’t just a coincidence and this is werewolf-related?”

“Yeah, I’d say we are. The victims in each other knew each other, so I’m thinking-”

“Packs. This guy is taking out entire packs.”

Stiles nods. “Exactly.”

There’s a moment of absolute silence while that sinks in, and then Danny realises something. “Aiden didn’t have a pack – he was the only one left, they were all dead. Which means-”

“We have to assume whoever this is either thought Aiden was with us, or just takes out every single werewolf in an area, regardless of pack relationships.”

“They’re all in danger.”

“Make that _we’re_ all in danger – we don’t have a clue if the killer differentiates between wolf and human.”

“Let’s hope we don’t have to find out.”

~~

It’s hard, after that, to go downstairs and sit across the table from Kono pretending like he doesn’t know anything. He does, though, because staying upstairs in his room would raise more questions than anything, and as much as it’s bad timing and bad circumstances, it still isn’t often he gets to see his cousins. So he does go downstairs, and he sits opposite Kono as they eat, the mood a lot more sombre than it had been on the first evening of their visit. Somewhere, Chin’s out trying to chase down leads and soon Kono will join him, swapping with Danno so that he can have a rest doing what Danny’s thinking of as guard duty in the house.

Kono waits until Danny’s dad has headed out to work and his mom has gone upstairs to watch a film before cornering him. They’re both doing the dishes, so he can’t even come up with an excuse to get away.

“How are you doing, Danny?”

“I’m fine,” he shrugs, “a little antsy at not being able to really go anywhere.  But fine.”

“Are you sure about that? Because Chin said you caught a glimpse of the body and I’ve got to say, even I was a little freaked out by that one, and I’ve seen a lot of bodies.”

“Yeah, well. I saw it – not like I can take back what I saw, you know?”

“I know,” she says, nudging his side as she dries off a plate, “but it’s okay to be upset about it, to want to talk about it.”

“How about not wanting to talk about it? Is that okay, too?”

Kono sighs. “Okay, I see the point you’re making there. Just know we’re here if you change your mind, yeah?”

“I do. Thanks.”

“You aren’t, however, getting out of talking about Stiles. Spill – what’s new?”

“Nothing’s new. It’s been, like, a day since you last asked about him. We’re friends. I happen to like him but it’s fine, we make good friends and if we’re not more it’s not the end of the world.” Although he is kind of regretting brushing Stiles off quite so much back before they became friends and Stiles was just being Stiles; maybe he’s scared his friend away in that way for life. Wisely, in his opinion, he chooses not to voice that to Kono.

“Well, he seems nice. Have you known him long?”

“A while, yeah. We only really got close after – after Jackson left, but I’ve always known he’s pretty cool.” Passing Kono the final plate to dry, he pulls the plug out of the sink to let it drain and turns to lean against the counter, arms folded. “Anyway, enough about me – what about _your_ life? What’s new?”

“Oh, you know, I’ve just been working, surfing, keeping 5-0 out of trouble.”

“I miss the islands.”

“You should come over next time you’re on school break – stay with me or Chin, spend your days at the beach, it’d be good for you.”

“Believe me, that sounds amazing.” Danny feels more relaxed just thinking about the possibility. No matter what else was going on, visiting the islands has always been fun, an escape from mainland life.

“Then we’ll have to make sure it happens.” Kono grins, and pulls Danny forward slightly, shoving him towards the living room. “Come on, let’s see what’s on TV. I’ve got about an hour before I’m due to swap with Danny W.”

He starts to head in the direction Kono wants him to, and then a thought hits him. “Actually, I’ve just remembered something I’ve got to do.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah,” he tries to look apologetic, “homework. I’m sorry.”

“No worries – school’s important.”

“Yeah,” he says, already heading up the stairs, “this is important.”

~~

“You found something?” Derek asks the moment Danny walks into the loft. It hadn’t been easy to sneak out with Danny Williams downstairs, but Danny has learned every trick in the book about sneaking out over the years (mostly doing things with Jackson).

“I don’t know whether it’ll help or not, but I think it’s definitely confirmation that your pack is going to be targeted.”

“Tell us.”

Nodding, Danny walks further into the room to stand next to Stiles. “Okay, so Stiles told you our theory about the garden location being the first death in each area, yes?”

“Yes.”

“And did he tell you there was a definite connection between each of the people killed?”

“No, I totally missed out that important fact,” says Stiles.

“Well, I had to dig a little further but I found another connection. At every house where there was a victim found in the garden, there was someone with a link to the pack. One was an ex-girlfriend; one was a doctor, and so on. So, here, I’m the connection to you guys. I’m not connected to Aiden, anymore. I think he was an error, or maybe they were trying to throw us off, or maybe he just got in the way – I don’t know.”

“Either way, you’re right.” Stiles pauses for a moment before continuing. “We can’t treat Aiden as a one off, we have to assume we’re the targets. Look on the bright side, Danny. None of the people who owned the gardens were victims, right?”

“No,” he pulls a face, “but five out of the six died within six months of the killings. On paper, their deaths look like accidents but I’m betting they weren’t.”

“Okay,” says Scott, “that all sounds plausible, except for one thing: if the people were connected to the pack, why didn’t they mention something to the police? Tell them who they thought were in danger?”

Derek shakes his head. “Because we don’t go to the cops for help. We sort out our own problems, because if people were to find out about what we are…” He trails off, point made.

“Well, then,” Lydia stands up and looks around at all of them, “how are we going to sort this out on our own?”

Stiles gives a wry smile. “Probably with great difficulty.”

~~

Despite his success sneaking out, sneaking _in_ gives Danny a lot more difficult. As in, he’s about to pull himself up onto the garage roof that lets him climb in through his window when someone clears their throat and he crashes back down into the bushes. It’s not a long fall but, still. Bushes.

He looks up from his position on the ground to see Steve McGarrett standing over him and, oh yeah, Danny can totally see why this guy scares the criminal population on Hawaii. Danno’s there as well, looking ever so slightly amused. “I fancied a stroll?” he tries, pushing himself to his feet.

“I don’t believe that, and you didn’t expect me to,” Steve says, “try again.”

“I was going stir crazy?”

“You hadn’t exactly been inside for a long time, and even if you had been, my partner would have happily gone for a walk with you. The truth, this time.”

“He’s a teenager, Steve,” says Danno, “ _that’s_ the truth.”

Steve frowns. “He’s old enough to know better and-”

“Old enough to know better. Okay, GI Joe, answer me this: are you really going to tell me you _never_ , in all of your teenage years when you were practicing having navy showers and perfecting that brooding face of yours, snuck out when you weren’t supposed to?”

Steve shrugs. “Of course I did, but I didn’t do it when I was supposed to be under police protection.” He turns his attention back to Danny. “So spill.”

 _Okay,_ Danny thinks, _time to say something untrue but believable._ “I had to see Stiles,” he blurts out, before he really thinks it through.

“Stiles?” Steve frowns. “The kid you’ve got a crush on?”

Danny has several issues with that question (the first one being kid, the second crush), but he’s too busy mentally kicking himself for the amount of teasing he’s just subjected himself to to call Steve on it. “Yeah, that’s the one. I, erm, missed him, I guess.”

“Sneaking out to see him at a time like this isn’t acceptable,” Steve says, as they head inside through the front door, which _is_ preferable to a window.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Your mom was worried sick, and I had to be pulled away from what I was doing to come and help.”

“I know. I really am sorry,” he says again, this time looking at his mom who is standing in the doorway to the living room. She looks really disappointed in him, and Danny hates putting that look on her face. The thing is, though, as sorry as he is, he has to do _something_ because if he doesn’t, his mom could come home sometime in the near future to find him dead, and he really can’t let that happen to her.

“From now on,” Steve says, “if you want to go out – even if it is to see Stiles – you need to talk to us. Got it?”

“Yes, sir. I understand.”

“You snuck out to see Stiles?” Chin asks from the doorway behind them. “We all came away from work worried about you because you snuck out to see Stiles?”

“I think it’s kind of cute,” Kono says, stepping up next to him, “totally stupid, of course, but cute.”

Danny groans.

~~

As embarrassing as returning home to _that_ particular welcoming committee had been, Danny is sort of relieved because he has a habit of embarrassing himself in front of his cousins, and knowing he’s fulfilled that quota is good. Now, he can focus on making sure they don’t get suspicious about what he’s doing, and trying to help get everyone through this latest threat to Beacon Hills alive. Which, tonight, apparently amounts to trying to overhear any sort of information from 5-o whilst pretending to be engrossed in the movie that’s playing on the TV.

Kono’s sitting at the table, poring over the very same files that Danny had not-so-legally already looked at, while Chin and Danno talk theories. Steve’s out talking to someone – the sheriff, Danny thinks – and he’s kind of glad; the SEAL’s been giving him the eyeball ever since Danny got back to the house.

He’s half-listening to Danno contemplate a sacrifice theory, and trying not to be sick at the thought, when the doorbell rings. Kono jumps up to answer it before he can, and he really wishes he’d managed when Stiles follows her back into the room. If he’d have answered, he could have sneaked him upstairs. As is, he knows his theory about the embarrassment being over has just been debunked.

“Sorry to interrupt, I just wanted to bring by a book Danny needs for school tomorrow.” Stiles gives him a pointed look, but Danny’s too busy trying not to blush to pay much attention.

“You two just can’t stay away from one another, can you?” asks Chin, and he definitely looks amused.

“Huh?” Stiles looks from Danny to Chin and back again.

“We caught your boy sneaking back after seeing you earlier,” Danno explains, “lovebirds. It’s cute. Also, your hands are empty. No book.”

Danny feels himself die a little inside, and is about to correct what’s been said when Stiles suddenly gets a strange look on his face.

“You caught us,” Stiles says, “that’s totally why Danny snuck out.”

And oh, Danny realises, Stiles is trying to help him by adding to what he thinks is Danny’s cover story, and there’s no way he can correct Stiles without making the others think he was lying earlier. The irony of him being fake boyfriends with Stiles when he wants to be real boyfriends does not escape his attention.

“Also totally why I’m here,” Stiles continues, “Danny, you think we can talk alone for a bit?”

He nods – anything to get away from the way Kono is looking at him. “Sure, we can go upstairs to my room.”

“Leave your door open, honey,” says his mom as they leave the room, and Danny can’t stop himself from blushing this time.

“She’s just – I-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Stiles says, already starting up the stairs, “ _honey.”_

After a second’s deliberation, he decides the best plan of action is just not to acknowledge anything of what’s happened, so the moment they’re alone in his room he makes sure the subject gets changed. “Why are you here? Has something else happened?”

“Actually,” Stiles scratches at the back of his neck, “I just wanted to check you were doing okay. Everything that’s happening is pretty intense and I just thought that, well, that seeing Aiden like that might have been harder than I realised for you. Because, you know, he looks like-”

“Ethan,” Danny finishes, speaking quietly. Stiles isn’t far off the mark – Ethan had been his first thought when he’d seen the body. For a bizarre, illogical second, he’d thought the body _was_ Ethan. “Honestly? I’m trying not to think about that right now, because if I do I don’t know how much use I’ll be to anyone else during all of this.”

“Okay. Okay, that’s fair enough. But once this is over, please talk to someone. Even if it isn’t me. Just, talk to someone.”

“I will. Probably you – you’re easy to talk to, considering _you_ talk so much sometimes.”

“Sometimes being the optimum word,” says Stiles. “I know when to be quiet, too.”

“I know you do.” Danny smiles, just to make sure Stiles believes him. “What about you? How are you doing? I mean, your life is potentially at stake again.”

“Dude, don’t remind me. I’m totally going to blame Scott – remember when he said it had been quiet?”

He laughs at that, and then sobers up. “The killer was already in Beacon Hills when he said it. It was already too late.”

“Now that? Sounds melodramatic. Come on, we’ve encountered worse than this guy before. Probably. We’ll be fine. I mean, we presumably have an advantage over those other packs in that we know what’s coming.”

“We know what, but not who,” he points out.

“Yeah, well, we’re working on that, aren’t we? Do you think 5-0 might have a theory about who it is?”

“They must do, if they knew he’d come to Beacon Hills. But it wasn’t in any of the files.”

“You know what I’m going to say.”

“I have to ask them,” he sighs, “I know I do.”

“You can leave it until tomorrow,” says Stiles, suddenly grinning, “it seems like you’ve had enough awkward conversations with them for one night.”

“I swear I didn’t tell them we were-”

“It’s fine, man – I could see that from the way you reacted downstairs. They got the wrong idea about something, I get it. Who am I kidding? Of course I get it – I’m like the boss of giving people wrong ideas.” Stiles waggles his eyebrows. “ _Honey._ ”

“Okay. Even if we were dating, there’s no way I’d let you call me that, just for the record.”

“Aww, but hon-”

“I have an idea. How about you stop calling me that, and I won’t tell Scott the real reason you were three hours late for his birthday party?”

“You are a cruel, cruel person, Danny Mahealani.”

 _Nope_ , he thinks, _just really good at self-preservation_.

~~

Self-preservation or not, no matter how hard he tries, or who he appeals to, Danny doesn’t manage to get himself out of going to school the next day. Instead, Chin drives him to school and tells him there’s going to be a patrol car, courtesy of Sheriff Stilinski, parked outside all day, just in case.

“If you all think there’s a chance of me getting hurt at school, why-” he starts, but isn’t allowed to finish.

“There isn’t a chance – this is more to calm your mom than anything else. School is actually probably the safest place you can be,” Chin turns to look at him with a smile, “so don’t even think about skipping class to take off with Stiles or anything else like that.”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“You so would.”

Danny shrugs, and turns to look towards the school entrance; people are already starting to head inside, but he doesn’t really want to join them and pretend that everything is okay when it’s obviously not. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“It’s to do with the case.”

“I thought it might be,” Chin says, “go on, ask away – it’s understandable you have questions after what’s happened.”

“Who is he? The guy you’re after.”

“Now that’s _definitely_ the sort of information ethics would say I shouldn’t share with you.”

“But you will?” he asks hopefully.

Chin seems to deliberate for a moment before sighing. “I will. Okay, this guy’s got several aliases but the one he seems to use most often is Jared Summers. He worked out of a weapons shop on Oahu for a couple of months and when he came on our radar, we researched a little and found out he’d lived in each of the places the killings were happening. Unfortunately, he’d already left the island by that point.”

“So you know exactly who he is?”

“Mostly. We’ve had varying descriptions of him from place to place, as though he keeps changing his appearance, but we’ve got a fair idea. We’re just having trouble finding him – he moves quickly.”

Danny nods. “It won’t help that you guys don’t know the area.”

“Exactly – right now we’re relying on the local police to help but us having to ask them every time we get a lead slows the whole process down.”

“I can imagine. It-”

“Speaking of slowing things down,” says Chin, talking over him, “you’re going to be late for school. Go on in and let me get to work on catching this guy.”

Danny stands and watches Chin drive away until he’s out of sight. It’s totally possible that he could leave school now and spend the day trying to help the pack, but he really doesn’t want to lie to his family again. More so, he doesn’t want to end up behind with school, and he doesn’t want to let the fact he has a knowledge of some slightly unbelievable things stop himself from living a normal life. So instead he turns and heads into the school. He gets as far as the lockers under an atmosphere of total normalcy, and then Lydia places a hand on the locker next to his and gives him a smile he knows is dangerous.

“What do you want?” he asks, pulling out the books he needs for class.

“The lowdown on you and Stiles.”

“Why should that matter to you?”

Lydia shrugs. “Stiles is my friend, and so are you, actually. So, spill.”

Lydia’s reason makes sense, but Danny’s known her too long and he knows the look on her face. “There’s another reason, too,” he says, and then sighs, “Jackson, right? He’s asked you to ask me.”

“Maybe. He can’t exactly keep an eye on you himself now, can he? He’s worried about you, Stiles is-”

“My friend. And honestly? We have more important things to worry about right now than our love lives, don’t you think?”

“What? Are we supposed to just put our lives on hold every time something freaky happens?” Lydia shakes her head. “That’s definitely not for me.”

“What about if we know who it is after us?” And that’s when Danny knows he can’t just go through the school day like normal – who was he kidding? He has information that could make the difference between life or death for one of his friends; he has to do something. “Speaking of, expect to be called out of school soon.”

“Where are you going?” Lydia calls after him as he walks back towards the school’s entrance.

Danny turns to look at Lydia. “To tell Derek what he needs to know.”

“Well,” Lydia smiles, starting to walk forwards, “you’re not doing it without me.”

~~

“Jared Summers,” Danny says, standing talking at the front of the room. Derek’s called everyone there, just as Danny thought he would, and Danny really hopes he’s looking at a group of people who are going to save themselves, rather than a group who are going to be killed, slowly, one by one. “That’s the name 5-0 have. He changes his appearance, and he worked out of a weapon’s shop on Oahu so there’s a chance that’s his cover here, too.”

“So this guy,” Stiles says, “is involved in the weapons trade and is killing of packs of werewolves. Sound like anyone we know?”

Everyone turns to look at Allison, who is nodding.

“He’s got to be a hunter,” she says, “a lone omega wouldn’t stand a chance against werewolves; they’d – you would – be able to scent him. But a hunter taking pack members out individually? He might be able to manage it.”

“Is there any chance your dad knows him?” Derek asks.

“I’m not sure. If he does, there’s no way he knows what Summers is doing. I’ll ask him, though.”

“Good. In the meantime, we can only really keep doing what we’ve been doing – looking out for this guy and sticking together. You should all go back to school.”

Isaac shakes his head. “That doesn’t exactly go along with sticking together, Derek. It leaves you alone.”

“Excuse me,” says Peter, “who am I? Maybe I don’t hang around this loft like it’s a pack magnet like the rest of you, but I think I can stick around in a situation like this.”

Lydia snorts – still not the biggest fan of Peter – and then picks up her bag. “School’s the safest place for us all to be. We’ll go there, and then we’ll go home in twos. I can stay at Allison’s, Isaac’s at Scott’s anyway, Danny and Stiles can stick together – they like doing that.”

Danny’s glad that Lydia’s towards the back of the group because it means he can glare at her from behind Stiles’ back while everyone is watching her speak.

“It kind of makes sense,” says Stiles, “and there _is_ a 5-0 bodyguard at Danny’s house  so, you know, I’ll be safe. And it’s not like anyone will even question me being there, especially now that they think-”

“Stiles,” Danny cuts him off, “no need to share that.”

“To share what?” Lydia asks.

Scott looks directly at Stiles. “You have to tell us now – it’s not fair to leave us hanging like that.”

“There’s a chance Danny’s entire family think we’re dating.”

Scott laughs, and then sobers up when no-one else joins in. “You’re being serious? They actually think that?”

Danny’s about ready to run away from Beacon Hills and never look back, because Lydia is looking at him with an I-told-you-so expression and Scott’s looking back and forth between him and Stiles as though he can’t quite understand the concept of them. And then Stiles speaks.

“What? Like Danny and I _couldn’t_ date? I mean, it’s not like it’d be a bad thing. Maybe it’d even be a _good_  thing, because it’s Danny and-” Stiles stops talking then, slapping a hand over his mouth. Danny thinks it looks pretty adorable, and then he realises what Stiles has just said.

“What exactly are you saying, Stiles?”

“Um. Can we have this conversation _not_ with everyone watching and listening?”

“Please do,” Peter says, wrinkling his nose. “The affairs of teenagers aren’t my top priority right now.”

Danny’s only half-listening as everyone reminds them to be careful and watch out for the threat, because he’s more focused on the fact that Stiles’ cheeks are slightly flushed and he actually looks nervous – probably because Stiles had been trying to make a point about how Danny and he are both likeable, and he’s realised he’s made it sound as though he _like_ likes Danny.

“You ready to go back to school?” asks Stiles, scratching at the back of his neck in a gesture that reads: nervous, awkward, worried. “My jeep is outside so we can go in that.”

“Sure,” he says, and follows Stiles out of the loft, trying to ignore the others and their gawking as much as possible.

Outside, Stiles presses a finger to his lips as he gets into the Jeep. Danny hesitates for a moment – maybe it’d be better to leave this conversation until later – but then climbs into the passenger seat; it’s a long walk to school from the loft, and he doesn’t want to turn this into a bigger, more awkward, deal than it has to be.

“I-”

“Not yet,” Stiles talks over him as he turns the key to start the engine, “wait.”

They drive in silence for a couple of minutes, Stiles’ fingers tapping against the wheel, Danny staring out of the window. He doesn’t query it when he realises Stiles is driving in the opposite direction to their school – he’s not exactly in a hurry to have to pretend everything is normal. And then Stiles pulls over at the side of the road and Danny remembers that _this_ isn’t exactly normal, either.

“I didn’t want them to hear,” Stiles says, turning sideways to look at Danny, “crazy super werewolf hearing and all that jazz. I figure we deserve privacy, right?”

“Sure,” he nods, “look, you don’t have to worry. I know that what you said back there doesn’t mean you want to-”

“I kind of want to date you, as in I want what your family thinks is true to actually be true,” Stiles blurts out. “Sorry, you were talking, I know, but I had to say it before I lost my nerve.”

So Danny _hadn’t_ misunderstood what Stiles had said back at the loft. Oh.

Stiles huffs out a breath. “Danny, please say something. You’re leaving me hanging here.”

“You _kind of_ want to date me? _Kind of?_ ” He lets his smirk ooze into his voice, hoping that Stiles will pick up on the playfulness.

“Definitely. I definitely want to date you, if you want to give it a go. If you don’t then, you know, we make awesome friends, too. I just think we-”

“I want to,” he says, and before he can chicken out, he leans forwards and presses his lips to Stiles’.

It isn’t weird at all, which is something Danny had worried about when he’d thought about what would happen if he and Stiles ever kissed. Instead, they just _fit_. Stiles makes a little choked off noise as their lips meet, and then slides his tongue into Danny’s mouth. There’s not a lot of space to manoeuvre in the jeep, but they make it work as Stiles tangles his fingers in Danny’s hair and Danny places a hand on Stiles’ side. They pull back for air, and Stiles bangs his head on the top of the jeep, pulling a face when Danny laughs at him.

“You’re a jerk,” says Stiles.

“I know.” And Danny’s happy, because things have changed in the space of a couple of minutes, but they’ve stayed the same, too.

“We’ve been building up to this for a while, haven’t we?”

“I was afraid I’d pushed you away too much.”

“What? How?”

Danny shrugs. “Back before we got closer, I kind of rejected you a lot. I mean, I know that was just messing around but, you know. I liked you even then, I think, which-”

“Is why you kept saying no and stuff. I get it, man, I’m just glad we became closer and that you accidentally made your cousins think we were dating. Hey, at least you’re not lying to them now!”

“We haven’t actually been on a date yet.”

“Duh, what do you think the last few months have been? We have been on numerous dates and haven’t even realised it.”

Danny thinks about all the movie nights, the coffees after school. “Sort of, I guess. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a proper first date when all this is over.”

“You’ve got a deal,” Stiles grins. “So I was thinking, I don’t know about you but I really don’t feel like going back to school when all of our lives are in danger and acting like there’s nothing up. Do you want to come back to mine and hang instead? We can try and research, maybe, put a movie on in the background or something.”

If 5-0 find out, Danny will be in for a lecture. If his parents find out, he’s going to be in serious trouble. But they’re not the ones having to deal with werewolf issues constantly, and right now Danny just needs to not have to pretend. “Sure,” he says, “I like the sound of that.”

“Awesome – some quality time with my boyfriend.”

Danny smirks. “You just wanted to say ‘my boyfriend’, didn’t you?”

“You caught me. It does sound nice, though, doesn’t it?”

“It sounds better than nice. Way better.”

~~

Stiles’ bedroom is covered in paper. Some of it is information that’s in the public domain, but most of it is things that are definitely not legal for them to be looking at: detailed case reports on all of the murders associated with the case, and others they’ve found that look to be werewolf-related; lists of strange calls and reports the Beacon Hills police have received over the last few months; and a similar list for each of the areas where deaths happened. Danny’s actually quite proud of how much data they’ve managed to amass in just a few hours.

“Are you seeing anything useful aside from what we already know?” asks Stiles. He’s sitting on the floor with his back up against his bed, a pile of paper in his arms.

Danny swivels around in the swivel chair and then shakes his head. “Not yet. There probably is something useful in all this, but in isolation from other details it won’t stand out.”

“You know what I don’t get? How is it this guy – even if he’s a werewolf – manages to beat _everyone_ he comes up against. I mean, surely sooner or later one of the wolves would get the advantage over him, right?”

“You’d think so. Unless he’s an alpha. I mean, Deucalion could have done it. He did do it.”

“Well we beat him,” Stiles tilts his head back to look up at the ceiling, “we’ll beat this guy too. We have to. I’m not finally having things go right in my life only to end up dead at the hands of this psycho.”

“We’ll beat him,” Danny says, standing up, “pass me your plate, I’ll go wash up.”

“No way, dude – you’re the guest. I’ll go.”

“Stiles, the amount of time we spend at each other’s houses, I think I can handle doing the dishes at yours. You keep sorting through the research – you’re good at it.”

“Okay. Hey, I know it probably won’t come up but if my dad asks, there’s nothing going on with the pack.”

“Still trying to protect him?”

Stiles nods. “He knows about us now, and there’s some things we have to tell him, but I’d rather he stayed in the dark about this so he doesn’t have to lie to any of his colleagues.”

“That’s fair.”

Downstairs, Danny starts the tap running. Small as the task of washing a couple of plates is, it feels good to be doing something that can actually be achieved, instead of floundering around trying to find answers to something that their lives could depend on.

“Well, you’re not my son.”

Danny just about manages to avoid dropping a plate, and turns to see Stiles’ dad standing in the doorway. “No, sir, I’m not. Hi.”

“Hi, Danny. How are you doing?”

“I’m okay, thanks, sir.”

Sherriff Stilinski nods. “And how’s school going?”

“Yeah, good. It’s going well.”

“Really? You know, that’s odd, considering you’re not there.”  

“Oh,” Danny says.

 “Yeah, oh,” the Sherriff raises his voice, “Stiles – down here. Now.”

“It’s my fault, sir,” says Danny, “I asked Stiles to bunk off to keep me company.”

“And why would you do that?”

“That body – it freaked me out,” he says as Stiles comes barrelling down the stairs, “I just didn’t feel like going to school, not when they thing we might be in danger, too. Stiles was just being a good friend.”

“What?” asks Stiles. “Hang on-”

“I guess I can understand that,” Stiles’ dad sighs, “I don’t want you making a habit of it, though. It’s nearly the end of the day now so I’m not going to make you go in, but tomorrow I expect you both to be at school. And if this happens again, I will make sure your cousins know you went off school grounds on your own, Danny.”

“Sure thing, sir,” Danny says, before Stiles can speak.

The Sherriff nods. “Does this have anything – _anything at all_ – to do with the pack?”

Stiles shakes his head.

“Okay – Danny, text whoever was meant to be picking you up and tell them I’ll drive you home. Stiles, we’ll be talking later.”

“You shouldn’t have covered for me,” Stiles says, once his dad has left the room, “this was my idea, remember?”

“Yeah, but if your dad thinks it’s my fault it won’t cause too many problems for you. Besides, all I really did was tell the truth – the body did freak me out, and we are in danger. Hey, I hope you didn’t mind me saying friend, I wasn’t sure where you’re at on the whole telling your dad thing.”

Stiles nods. “It’s cool, man. I’ll talk to him about it tonight, though – this is something I don’t have to or want to keep from him.”

“Unlike werewolves.”

“Exactly. Yeah, thanks for keeping quiet about the pack stuff, too. Hey, do you want to take some of the stuff we found with you to look through?”

“Yes, please. Anything to make me feel like I’m doing something other than waiting around for something to happen.”

Stiles snorts. “Welcome to my life, make yourself at home.”

Danny grins. “You know what? I think I will.”

~~

Danny doesn’t have a chance to start looking through the pile of documents he’s brought home with him until late on in the evening, because the whole of 5-0 had been gathered for food again when he’d arrived home. He feels antsy when they ask him about his day, mumbles something and hopes they’ll just chalk it up to a teenage dissatisfaction with school.

They finally leave, with just Chin staying behind to take protective duty, and Danny’s grateful when his dad asks if he has homework because it gives him an excuse to leave his family and go hole up in his room to pore over information that he’s already read once. It is, he figures, probably like any sort of research investigation; the more familiar he gets with the data, the more quickly he’ll be able to draw conclusions. 

He reads through the case files again, but the only thing he finds that gives him any hope at all is a post-it written by Stiles: _5-0 are pretty badass. Note to self: ask Danny if he can roundhouse kick like Kono can._

Yeah, Danny’s boyfriend is really quite awesome. He guesses of has 5-0 to thank for that development, too, because it was their misunderstanding that had led to Stiles’ confession which had led to _them_. Danny makes a mental note to get them really good Christmas presents this year. He’s about to start searching for some – because the case files are getting him nowhere and he wants to be in a good mood because he’s _dating Stiles_ – when his phone beeps.

_Have u heard from any of the others?_

He replies to Stiles instantly. _Nope, not since we saw them this AM – why?_

_can’t get in touch with Scott. probably nothing._

_Want me 2 try Lydia?_

_Sure. i’ll try D._

Lydia doesn’t pick up the first, or the second, or the third, time that Danny tries calling her. So he tries Isaac, and he doesn’t either.

He calls Stiles. “No answer from Lydia or Isaac.”

“I tried Derek, Allison, even Peter. Nothing.”

“This can’t be good.” Danny stands up and begins to pace.

“No, I know. Okay, look, you stay put – I’m going to come over to yours.”

“It might not be safe.”

There’s a pause and then Stiles talks again. “It’s probably no safer for me to be here. At least if we’re together we can try and figure out what’s going on. I won’t be long.”

Danny hangs up and goes downstairs to wait by the front door, ignoring the odd look he gets from Chin. He should have offered to go over to Stiles’ place instead of letting Stiles be the one to travel on his own. He gets a sudden urge to text Jackson and tell him what’s going on, but stops himself. There’s nothing his friend can do from London apart from worry about him and about Lydia.

“Everything okay, cuz?” Chin asks, coming to stand beside him. “You seem a bit on edge.”

Danny snorts. “And you’d blame me for being on edge right now because?”

“Good point. My question still stands, though.”

“I’m just waiting for Stiles, that’s all. He’s coming around.”

“This late?”

“He’s picking up a book for school, you know how it is. And it’s not that late, really.”

“It is when there are dangerous people in town.”

Danny’s about to reply when there’s a knock on the door. He opens it and pulls Stiles inside. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Absolutely fine. Should we go upstairs?”

“Yeah, sure,” he glances at Chin, “we’re going to go upstairs and get the thing.”

“If you say so, coz.”

Danny grabs a hold of Stiles’ hand as he leads him up the stairs, knows Stiles needs the contact as much as he does when Stiles squeezes back. They manage to stay mostly calm until they’re in Danny’s bedroom with the door closed and they can let the façade drop.

“Where is everyone?” asks Danny, walking over to open the window because he suddenly feels very hot.

“I have no idea. I tried calling Scott again before I came in and he’s still not answering. And I called Lydia’s house before I left and her parents said she hadn’t got home yet and they figured she’d gone to Allison’s after school or something.”

“ _Figured?_ ”

“Yeah, I know. Her parents are so – okay, that’s getting off track.”

“Maybe they’ve gone after Summers,” he suggests.  

“Without telling us? And with Lydia, too? I don’t think so, man. I think it’s more likely Summers has gone after _them_.”

“There’s no way one guy – even a werewolf guy – could take them all at once, though. Even if he were able to fight each of them and win, surely someone would have escaped?”

Stiles nods. “I know. But maybe he didn’t take them all at once. Maybe he took them as they left – Scott, Allison and Lydia would have been going back to school, but Isaac might have stayed with Derek, and Derek and Peter would have still been in the loft.”

“Why weren’t we taken?”

“I really don’t know. Maybe he didn’t think we were an immediate threat? Maybe he just couldn’t find us. I don’t know. But we have to do something, while there’s still a chance they’re alive.”

Danny’s in agreement there; aside from the fact they’re probably still targets, he’s not going to do nothing when he knows his friends are in trouble, and he doesn’t want to think about the alternative: that there might be nothing he can do to help now. “I know. We can’t do this alone, though. If Derek and Scott couldn’t defend themselves, what can we do alone? We need help.”

“Yep,” Stiles says, “I have an idea about that. You’re not going to like it.”

“What?”

“We do need help. We need 5-0.”

~~

They wait until Danny’s parents have gone to bed before going downstairs to find Chin. It feels like wasting time, but there’s no way he wants to get his parents involved more than they already are, and they don’t have a clue where their friends are even if they know who has them.

Chin looks around as they walk into the room, and arches an eyebrow. “Okay, tell me.”

Dropping onto the couch, Danny waits until Stiles has sat down next to him before beginning. “It’s going to be kind of hard for you to believe what I’m about to say, but we really need your help so I’m taking the risk and hoping you’ll trust me enough to know I’m telling the truth.”

“This sounds serious,” Chin says, “I thought maybe you two had done something stupid but this is more than that?”

“Definitely more than that. Man, I don’t really know where to begin, it’s-”

“Werewolves are real,” says Stiles, interrupting, “that’s where we should begin. Werewolves are real and they’re our friends, or at least some of them are, and they’re in trouble.”

“Okay, I see, you’re trying to be funny.”

“No,” Danny says, “he’s being serious. I _know_ it’s hard to believe – trust me, I didn’t at first, either, and if we had one of them around we could get them to shift to prove it to you but we don’t so I need you to believe me.”

“That’s a pretty big ask, coz,” says Chin, looking amused. “Come on, if you’re going to try and convince me something, go with something more realistic.”

“Look, please I-”

Stiles jumps up suddenly, looking triumphant. “There _is_ a way we can prove it.”

“How?” asks Danny.

“There isn’t a werewolf we know here who can shift, but there’s a werewolf somewhere else who can. In London, to be specific.”

“Jackson. You’re a genius.”

“Hang on,” says Chin, “you’re trying to convince me that _Jackson_ is a werewolf? The kid who used to pretend his dad was-”

“Yes, that Jackson. Hang on, let me get my laptop.” Danny starts heading for his bedroom before he even finishes speaking, just hoping that Jackson is actually around to do this for them.

This is their best chance of convincing his cousin to listen to them, and of getting help for the others. It has to work.

~~

“You were telling the truth,” Chin sits back in the armchair, a shocked expression fixed in place. “You were actually telling the truth.”

Danny nods. “Sorry – I really wish I wasn’t.”

“Okay, so they exist. What exactly is it you need my help with?”

“Everything’s connected,” says Stiles, “the body you found, the guy you’re after, all of it – and now our friends have gone missing, and we’re possibly going to be next for all we know.”

“The victim-”

“Is also a werewolf.”

Chin looks at Danny. “A friend of yours?”

“No. Not him.”

“Right. And you say your friends are missing?”

“We can’t get in contact with any of them,” Danny says, “and we’re pretty sure Summers has them because we’ve seen a pattern of packs being targeted.”

“Do I want to know how you’ve _seen a pattern_?”

“Probably not, no. Anyway, the point is even if we can work out where they’re being held, we can’t rescue them on our own. We need help.”

“Your help,” Stiles clarifies. “As in 5-0’s. Which, when you think about it, is a good thing for you because you get to catch your guy _and_ help your cousin.”

“I’m assuming you’d want to do it in a way in which my team don’t find out the truth about your friends.”

“It’s better if as few people as possible know the truth, but if you’d feel happier telling them then we’d understand,” Danny says, “I know what it’s like to be kept in the dark about this.”

 Chin nods. “Honestly? They’ve been through enough without having another nightmare to worry about. Unless it’s absolutely necessary for them to know, we’ll keep it between us. So do you two have any idea where they’re being held?”

“No,” says Stiles, “which means we’re going to have to work hard and work quickly if we’re going to find them.”

“I take it you have the necessary information at hand to do that?” Chin asks Danny, giving him a look that’s somewhere between disproving and amused.

“It’s a possibility. I’ll go get it, shall I?”

“You’d better.”

It doesn’t take long for Danny to gather up all of the stuff from his room and they divide it into three piles to work through.

“I’ve got to say – you’ve been thorough,” says Chin, “I’m loathe to say I’m impressed at you breaking the law but if this had been legal? I’d be impressed.”

“Thanks,” he says, “I think.”

“Danny’s awesome,” says Stiles. “Okay, so we can probably discount the case files for now, because we’re more looking for a location than motive or means. So we want to focus on looking into Summers’ background, any associates, anything strange that’s been reported over the last few weeks.”

Chin turns to look at Stiles, shaking his head, “I think you took my line.”

Stiles shrugs. “My dad’s the Sherriff, and I’ve been dealing with this werewolf stuff for a long time now. That line came naturally to me.”

“Does your dad know about… you know?”

“Yeah, but I’d still rather he was kept out of this. You guys can leave when it’s all over, my dad’s the one who’d have to answer some difficult questions if he gets involved.”

Danny tunes them out as he reads about numerous reports of suspicious looking men hanging around, and other strange reports, and Summers and the small amount of intel that’s been gathered about him. “It doesn’t make sense,” he says, realising, “nothing here points to Summers being a werewolf, and Derek and the others hadn’t picked up on any strange scents or anything.”

“What are you thinking instead?” asks Stiles.

“I think maybe our first instinct was right and he’s a hunter. And I don’t think he’s alone.”

“What?”

“I’m no expert, but there isn’t usually _this_ many reports of suspicious looking people in the space of a couple of weeks, is there?” Danny pushes the relevant lists over towards Stiles and Chin. “And they’re all in a similar area – so if they _are_ a group of hunters, maybe they’re based somewhere around there.”

Chin nods. “That make sense. Do you have a map of the local area?”

“Yeah,” Stiles says, moving bits of paper out of the way to find it. “Here.”

“Okay, good. Read out all the places where incidents have been reported and I’ll mark them on here – that way we can give ourselves a radius to work in.”

Danny does as instructed, and it’s clear before he even finishes where they need to look for answers. Derek’s loft falls within the circle that Chin draws onto the map, and Danny shivers; the bad guys have been so close all along.

“There’s quite a lot of places they could be holed up here,” says Chin, “we’re going to need to narrow it down.”

“How about looking into recent acquisitions?” asks Stiles. “Danny, you can do that, right?”

“I-” he glances at Chin, “yeah, I _could_ do that, but it wouldn’t be completely legal.”

“Do it,” Chin says, “we don’t have the time to go through official means.”

Pulling his laptop towards him, Danny hopes he can find what they need. “Any idea where to start?”

“Maybe work from the loft outwards?” says Chin. “From my experience of kidnappings, it would make sense that they were close – easier for them to monitor, and to take everyone with minimum chances of being noticed.”

He nods, and gets to work. Even though he’s been given the go-ahead from Chin, it’s strange to be hacking into pages he definitely shouldn’t be looking at in front of his cop cousin. “Okay, so I’ve got a list of recent acquisitions made in a 1km area around the loft. Lots of apartments, three store spaces and, here we go, a factory that’s been empty for years up until now. Think that’s where we should start?”

“I’d say so.”

“Can you get information on the buyer?” asks Stiles, getting out of his seat to come and stand behind Danny. He leans forward to see the screen, breath puffing against Danny’s neck.

“I don’t – I can try. Maybe if you back off a little? That’s kind of distracting, but feel free to do it again when people’s lives aren’t at stake.”

Chin chuckles as Stiles takes a step back. “You two are funny,” he says. “Wait…stakes?”

Stiles shakes his head. “Vampires aren’t real or, at least, as far as I know.”

Smirking, Danny hits a few keys to try and access the records of the factory sale. It’s easy to find the name of the past owner, but the only thing he can find on the new owner is an account number. Usually, this sort of a challenge gives him a thrill, but now there’s too much riding on him being able to find what they need in a short space of time and it’s just frustrating.

“That’s an account number?” says Chin, “okay, if you’re going to hack into a bank system, I really don’t want to know. I think I’ll go outside and get some fresh air.”

“We’ll come and get you if we find anything,” Stiles promises, “well, if Danny finds anything. I’m just standing here looking devilishly handsome.”

Danny’s always known Stiles can talk a lot when he wants to, but as he tries to hack into an extremely secure database he’s really grateful that Stiles also knows when to just be quiet and let people work. It allows him to get completely focused on his task, and he barely notices when Stiles quietly leaves the room twenty minutes later. When Stiles comes back in holding a steaming cup of tea, though, Danny _definitely_ notices that.

“Thank you,” he says after taking a sip, “this is great.”

“It’s the least I can do. Have you found anything?”

Danny grins. “I’ve managed to get into the database, I’m running something to look for the account information now. I reckon in another ten minutes we’ll know who runs the account. Let’s just hope it _is_ this factory and it’s not a false lead, otherwise I’m probably going to have to do this all over again.”

“Let’s hope so,” says Stiles, “we don’t know how much time the others have. Or if they’re even-”

“Don’t say it. They have to be. They’ll be fine.”

“If any pack can survive it’s that one, right?” asks Stiles, “I mean, Derek’s survived a lot of fights he technically shouldn’t have, Scott – Scott’s smart, he outsmarted Gerard, and they’ve got _Lydia_ with them – it’s _Lydia._ ”

“Stiles.”

“What?”

Danny pushes his cup towards Stiles. “Drink some, it might help you keep calm.”

Stiles nods and does as he’s told, then pushes the drink back to Danny so he can have some more. “Chin’s really great for how cool he’s being about this.”

“He’s always been good under pressure – once this is all over there might be more questions about why we’re involved in all this.”

“I think we can handle that.”

“Yeah-” Danny doesn’t finish what he was going to say because he lets out a whoop of delight instead, and then remembers his parents are in bed asleep. “Crap. Okay, not crap, actually, because I have a name and ID.”

“Jared Summers?”

“No, but I’d say that photo looks an awful lot like him, wouldn’t you?”

“I am _so, so_ glad we hit the right building first time,” Stiles says. “You start closing everything down, I’ll go tell Chin.”

“Sure. Let’s do this.”

~~

Danny has to admit, if it weren’t for the severity of the situation and the fact his friends are in danger, he’d totally be one hundred per cent focused on how _cool_ 5-0 look when they whir into action. He’d been sure that at least some of his cousins’ stories had been exaggerated, but ten minutes after Chin puts a call in to Steve, the others turn up at the house and get ready for their job like a well-oiled machine.

Chin lets the two of them ride with the team before the rest of 5-0 can complain, but when they park up down the street from the factory Steve turns to look at them.

“You two are staying here. I know you somehow helped Chin find this lead – I really don’t know how – but it’s too dangerous for you out there.”

“Sure,” says Stiles, “we’ll wait here. No problem.”

“I know you will.” Steve grins, as if he knows something they don’t know. “Because I’m locking the two of you in the car.”

Before either of them can protest, the team are out of the car and Steve’s pressed the lock. Danny scowls at Kono, who had been riding behind in another car, through the window, but she just smiles sweetly and waves at him before following the others down the street. _Cousins._

“I don’t like this,” he says, turning to Stiles. “We should be there.”

“I know – Chin’s the only one who knows our werewolf friends are in there. We don’t know what they could be walking into, and we’re more knowledgeable about how to deal with angry Derek Hale than they are.”

“You’re right but we’re stuck now. We should have mentioned in to Chin before everyone showed up.”

“Stuck? You’re kidding, right?” Stiles smirks. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve been locked in the back of a patrol car? I can totally bust us out of this thing.”

Two minutes later, Stiles _has_ busted them out of the car and they’re heading towards the factory. Stiles had expected 5-0 to still be outside securing the perimeter, but Danny’s heard the stories and knows better. He’s right, too, because when they reach the factory the side door has already been forced open and there are shouts coming from inside.

Promising himself that he’ll never do anything as reckless as this ever again, Danny follows behind Stiles as they enter the factory. They follow the noise at first, and Danny’s eyes widen as he sees the gunfight that’s going on. McGarrett is sliding across the floor firing at hunters in all directions while his team are engaged in other things. There’s no sign of the pack, though, and Danny reluctantly lets Stiles pull him away so they can go and look for them.

The factory is _old –_ as well as the huge room (probably the factory floor) where 5-0 and the hunters are, there are a dozen smaller rooms that are probably office, and then they reach the end of a corridor and find stairs leading down to a basement.

Stiles groans. “Why is it always a basement?”

“Fact of life,” he says, “there’s probably at least one person on guard down there, right?”

“Yeah. Luckily for us, everyone else is currently being distracted by your cousins, Jersey and GI Joe.”

Danny glances back the way they came and then looks at Stiles, sighting. “I’m not going to like this plan, am I?”

“It’s an awesome plan,” says Stiles. “I’m going to shout really loudly, and then when whoever is on guard comes up to see what’s going on, you’re going to hit him over the head because you’re better at that sort of thing than me.”

“What sort of thing? Violence?”

“Nope. Not being clumsy in moments that count.”

“Well,” he says, looking around for something he can use to hit someone with, “this is definitely a moment that counts.”

Stiles nods. “Let’s make sure it is.”

Danny makes a go ahead sort of a gesture, and can’t help but grin at the taunts Stiles yells, then. There’s a moment’s silence before the sound of feet thudding up the stairs and a man bursts through the door. He’s definitely carrying a gun but Danny doesn’t give himself to think about it, launching forwards from his spot and bringing the metal pipe he’d found down onto the man’s head. He drops straight away, and Danny’s quite impressed with himself. He’s not the only one.

“Derek Hale eat your heart out,” says Stiles, and then, “oops, he can probably hear me. Hi Derek.”

“Do you think he was the only one?”

“There’s only one way to find out.”

Really hoping that the guy was the only one there, Danny follows Stiles down the steps into the basement. For some reason, he’s been expecting a dark, dingy room but it’s exactly the opposite. Bright, fluorescent lights hang from the ceiling and the room itself is almost white, apart from the patches of what Danny realises with a jolt is blood on the floor. It’s completely silent for about five seconds and then a series of muffled noises draws his attention to where Stiles’ already is; the wall at the far end of the room where the entire pack is chained up, bar Lydia and Allison who are tied to chairs nearby.

Alive. All of them are alive.

Danny can feel the grin splitting his face even as he goes to help Stiles try and free everyone. They tug at the chains ineffectually for a moment before changing tack and removing the rags of cloth that are serving as gags first.

“How did you find us?” asks Scott as soon as he’s able to, looking at Stiles then Danny then back again. He opens his mouth to say something else but Stiles pulls him in for a hug before he can.

“I’m glad you’re okay, man,” says Stiles, “otherwise I’d have had to kick your ass.” He pulls back and moves to help Lydia.

Scott snorts. “You could have _tried to_ kick my ass. How’d you find us?”

“A little bit of me, a lot of Danny, and a little of 5-0,” says Stiles as he gently removes the gag from Lydia’s mouth. “Is there anyone else down here?”

“No,” says Scott, “just us and that one guy.”

“Good – that gives us time to try and figure out how to get you guys out of these chains.”

Allison coughs. “You could just try hitting the lever right there.”

Danny grins, and goes to do just that as Stiles works on Allison and Lydia’s ropes. He hasn’t forgotten about the blood he’d noticed when they entered, but he can’t see any obvious signs of injury. “Anyone hurt?” he asks.

“Nothing that hasn’t already healed,” says Derek, “they were trying to get information from us about the alpha pack. Apparently Aiden wouldn’t tell them anything, so they thought they’d try us.”

“That’s probably the only reason we’re still alive right now,” Isaac points out.

“Well,” Stiles says, dragging out the word, “that and, you know, me and Danny. Getting that hunter out of here before he realised what was going up downstairs and killed you all.”

“Which considering you were locked in the car is pretty impressive,” Chin tells them from the doorway.

Spinning around, Danny does his best to look sheepish but he doesn’t think he does a good job – he’s too relieved at having succeeded in saving people for once. “Uh, we kind of thought some of our knowledge might be needed.”

Chin nods. “We’ll talk about it for later. For now, you two might want to get out of here and back into the car before anyone else spots you.”

“It’s a little bit too late for that.” Steve steps up behind Chin. “Someone is going to explain what’s going on. Now.”

“It’s my fault,” Danny blurts out, making sure not to implicate his cousin, “we told Chin we had a lead but, uh, we might have failed to mention we thought our friends might be next on the killer’s list. Hence how they’re here now and we’re here and, yeah, sorry.”

“Do you realise how irresponsible that was?” Steve fixes them with a glare that Danny is pretty sure is normally reserved for criminals. “If you two had have been a little less lucky, your cousins could have come down here and found your bodies.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“And you think that’s good enough? Because-”

“I think you’ve made your point,” Derek says then, stepping forwards to stand next to Danny and Stiles, and scowling at Steve.

Steve scowls right on back at him, unimpressed by the warning look that usually makes the residents of Beacon Hills avoid Derek Hale at all costs. “I haven’t even got started yet – and considering _you’re_ the one who needed to be rescued by two kids, maybe you should stay out of it.”

“Great,” Lydia rolls her eyes, “so now you’re insulting the victims?”

Her admonishment works – of course it does, she’s Lydia – and Steve backs down after another moment of frowning at Derek. “You two go back to Danny’s place while we take everyone’s statements,” he says, “we’ll finish this later.”

~~

They go back to Stiles’ place first because it seems like an option that won’t get them shouted at and they figure 5-0 will be distracted for a little while anyway. Predictably for two guys who like eating they end up in the kitchen.

“Dude, we totally saved the pack.” Stiles grins, pulling open the fridge and inspecting the food inside. “They can never keep us out of things because we’re human again because _we_ just saved _them._ ”

“Yeah, I have a feeling they’re not going to buy that logic. Besides, I’d rather Derek and the others who actually have, you know, super-strength and healing were the ones to field the danger. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“I don’t want _you_ to get hurt,” Stiles says, kicking the fridge door shut. “You’re not allowed to get hurt.”

“I’ll do my best not to.” Leaning forward, Danny gives Stiles a quick peck on the cheek which turns into a proper kiss on the lips when Stiles grabs hold of Danny’s neck so he can’t move away. Danny’s not really going to complain.

And then someone clears their throat.

Danny and Stiles jump apart, moving as far away from each other as is possible, and Danny winces when he confirms that, yes, Stiles’ dad _has_ just walked in on them kissing. Danny knows from experience that the conversation Stiles is about to have with his dad is hard enough without the awkwardness of having the topic broached quite like this.

“I should give you two a moment to talk.”

“In a second,” says Sherriff Stilinski, “first of all, tell me you’re not going to hurt my son.”

Danny nods. “It’s _Stiles_. I couldn’t.”

“Good. You head home now, I’ll drop Stiles around to your place later.”

Danny shoots Stiles what he hopes is a reassuring smile as he leaves, and hopes Stiles will get to his place before Steve McGarrett does - Stiles has always been better at getting out of trouble. 

~~

“I really wish you hadn’t told me all those stories of 5-0,” says Stiles, throwing himself down onto Danny’s bed, “because now I know what to expect from this telling off. McGarrett’s probably going to dangle us off a cliff or something.”

He nods, and goes to lie next to Stiles, sides pressed up against each other. “It’ll be okay. Maybe he’ll have calmed down and realised we actually saved the day.”

“Or maybe him and Derek went all alpha male on each other again – are you sure the Commander isn’t a werewolf, by the way? – and disaster struck.”

“You know, despite what it looked like when we left Chin’s very good at calming situations down. That, plus a whole group of teenagers who’ve been chained up might have just distracted Steve enough for us to be okay.”

Shrugging, Stiles threads his fingers through Danny’s and squeezes his hand. “Either way, we saved them. Me and you.”

Danny nods. “I know. Speaking of, I’m assuming from the fact you’re happy even with the threat of 5-0 that your talk with your dad went well?”

“Yeah, well, my dad likes you and he’s a good guy. It was actually a whole lot easier than I thought it’d be – he actually said he’d been rooting for us.”

“We make a good team, huh?” he says, waggling his eyebrows, pleased when he makes Stiles laugh. “And look, any anger 5-0 is feeling will blow over – the lives we saved? They’ll last, at least until the next time something goes wrong.”

“There’s something else that’ll last too,” says Stiles, and he leans in to kiss Danny.

It’s a quick kiss, compared to their last one, but it’s just as good as far as Danny is concerned. When they pull apart, he taps his fingers on the top of Stiles’ hand, revelling in how close it feels, and in the truth of Stiles’ words.

They’re onto a good thing.  


End file.
